JPH0813557B2 - Printing method of dot printer - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a dot printer printing method.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-73852, in a wire dot printer, every other continuous dot is arranged on a dot line in the row direction of an original dot pattern such as a font. There is a printing method in which the dot pattern conversion is performed by thinning out and the printing is performed at twice the normal speed based on the dot pattern after the conversion.

[Problems to be Solved] Although the printing speed is doubled in the conventional printing method described above,
Since all the thinned dots are deleted, the printed dot pattern has a drawback that the print quality is significantly deteriorated as compared with the original dot pattern.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing method for a dot printer that realizes a high printing speed with almost no deterioration in printing quality.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention receives an original dot pattern representing a font, a graphic, or the like, and when there is a dot in one row of dots to be printed, the dots to be printed are printed above and below. / Or move to the lower row, and if there is a dot in the same row one column before the moved dot, the moved dot is deleted to convert the original dot pattern, and the converted dot pattern By carrying out printing based on the above, the above problems are solved.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a print character designating means such as a personal computer, 2 is an original dot pattern storage circuit comprising a ROM in which dot data of original dot patterns of plural kinds of characters, numbers, symbols, etc. are stored, and 3 is an original. The RAM 4 for temporarily storing the dot data of the original dot pattern read from the dot pattern storage circuit 2 and the dot data of the dot pattern obtained by converting the original dot pattern by a predetermined algorithm Read out of dot data A control circuit 5 for performing pattern conversion of the original dot pattern and printing control, etc., is a printing means for printing based on the dot data stored in the RAM 3, for example, a printing element such as a plurality of printing wires. And the like are provided in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction.

Next, an outline of high-speed (double speed of normal) printing operation will be described. First, a mode switch (not shown) is operated to switch to the high-speed printing mode, and the printing character designating means 1 designates a printing character. When the print character is designated, the dot data of the corresponding original dot pattern is read from the original dot pattern storage circuit 2, and the original dot pattern is pattern-converted by the control circuit 4 based on a predetermined algorithm. It is stored in RAM3. And RAM3
The printing means 5 performs printing based on the dot pattern stored in the.

Next, the outline of the pattern conversion method of the original dot pattern by the control circuit 4 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the original dot pattern read from the original dot pattern storage circuit 2 is developed in the RAM 3 (step).

The dot pattern in the first row is not converted and is stored in RAM3
Is stored. Next, the dot pattern in the second row is the first
The pattern is converted based on the dot pattern of the row. In this pattern conversion, when there is dot data in the same row in the previous row of the dot data in the second row, the dot data in the second row is moved up one row in the same row. Here, if there is dot data in the same row in the previous row at the destination position, the dot data in the second row is deleted. In this way, pattern conversion is sequentially performed for each column (step).

When the dot pattern conversion for one line is completed, the printing means 5 prints at a double speed of the normal time based on the converted dot pattern (step). That is, as can be seen from FIG. 3 (c), since continuous printing is not performed by one printing element, the scanning speed of the printing element can be doubled as usual.

Next, an example of the algorithm of the pattern conversion method of the above step will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (c).

The pattern conversion algorithm in this example is N = [SFT {(A and N) xor N} and A] or (A and N). N is the dot data of the Nth row, and is now the third
The pattern conversion of the dot data of the Nth row of the original dot pattern of FIG.
In the figure, it is assumed that the dot data of the (N-1) th column has been subjected to pattern conversion.

First, in (A and N), A is NOT (N-1), that is, the inversion of the dot data of the N-1 column, and is the logical product of A and N. Now, as shown in FIG. 3A, the dot data N-1 in the (N-1) th column is N-1 = (101101) in order from the first row.
11), so A = (01001000). Here, dots are printed when the data is "1". Further, as shown in the figure, the dot data N of the Nth row is N = (00101001). Therefore, (A and N) = (00001000). This represents dot data that can be printed at the same position without moving in the Nth column.

Next, {(A and N) xor N} is performed. xor is an exclusive OR. Since (A and N) and N are as described above, {(A and N) xor N} = (00100001). This represents non-printable dot data of the original dot data of the Nth row.

Next, [SFT {(A and N) xor N} and A] is performed. SFT indicates that all dot data in one column is moved up one row. Since the dot data of {(A and N) xor N} is as above, SFT {(A and N) xor
N} = (01000010). This represents the dot data when the unprintable dot data of the original dot data of the Nth column is moved up by one line. Since A is as described above, [SFT {(A and N) xor N} and A] = (0100
0000). This represents the printable dot data in the dot data obtained by moving the unprintable dot data in the original dot data of the Nth column up one row.

Next, [SFT {(A and N) xor N} and A] or (A an
d N). Since [SFT {(A and N) xor N} and A] and (A and N) are as above, [SFT {(A and N
N) xor N} and A] or (A and N) = (01001000). This is because the dot data of [SFT {(A and N) xor N} and A], that is, the non-printable dot data of the original dot data of the Nth row, is the printable dot data, and N) dot data, that is, the Nth
The dot data after the pattern conversion of the Nth column is represented by taking the logical sum of the original dot data of the column and the printable dot data. That is, the Nth part of FIG.
The dot pattern of the row is pattern-converted as shown in FIG.

As described above, the dot pattern of the Nth row is converted, and similarly, the patterns of N + 1, N + 2, ... Are sequentially converted. By the way, N + is shown in Fig. 3 (c).
The dot pattern when the pattern conversion of up to one column is performed is shown.

An example of printing the original dot pattern is shown in FIG. 4, and an example of printing the dot pattern obtained by converting the original dot pattern by the pattern conversion method of the above embodiment is shown in FIG.
FIG. 6 shows a printing example of a dot pattern obtained by converting the illustrated original dot pattern by a conventional pattern conversion method.
As can be seen from these figures, in the conventional example, the interval between dots is conspicuous and the print quality is degraded, whereas in the print example according to the present invention, the interval between dots is interpolated, and the print quality is improved. ing. In particular, when the printed result was copied, the difference between them became remarkable, and it was confirmed that the printed result according to the present invention showed almost no difference from the case of normal printing.

In the above embodiment, the unprintable dot data in the original dot pattern is moved up one row in the same column. However, the invention is not limited to this, and the downward movement, the diagonal movement, and the plural rows are performed. The destination may be set arbitrarily, such as moving minutes. Further, there may be a plurality of destinations, for example, one row above and one row below. Further, the conversion pattern may be different depending on the dot position, such as downward pattern conversion for the first row to the n-th row and upward pattern conversion for the other rows.

[Effect] According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a high printing speed without substantially impairing the printing quality. Also,
Since the number of dots deleted at the time of dot pattern conversion is reduced as compared with the conventional case, the copying ability of a character or the like printed by the method of the present invention is not impaired.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a printer using the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (c) are diagrams of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an embodiment, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of printing with an original dot pattern, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of dot pattern printing by the pattern conversion of the present invention. The figure is an explanatory view showing an example of dot pattern printing by conventional pattern conversion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. When an original dot pattern representing a font, a graphic or the like is received and a dot exists in the same line one column before the dot to be printed, the dot to be printed is moved to an upper and / or lower line. If there is a dot in the same row that is one column before the moved dot, the moved dot is deleted to convert the dot pattern, and printing is performed based on the converted dot pattern. Characteristic dot printer printing method.